Consumers of make-up and fashion accessory products, especially “high-end” make-up and fashion accessory products, usually need to see how such products will appear on themselves prior to making a purchase decision. Because of this, make-up and fashion accessory merchants have had a need to rely substantially on physical store locations where consumers can try different make-up applications and accessories.
Some merchants have attempted to use digital computer imaging technology to provide a simulation of make-up products, however, these past systems merely display various types of make-up on models and do not show how such make-up would appear on the consumer. Moreover, these past systems use fixed photographs and do not provide means to select various combinations of products. Further, the past systems do not provide means to adjust the amount of make-up products applied.
Therefore, what is desired is a system and method for life-like simulation of the appearance of make-up and fashion accessories on an image of a consumer, which allows the consumer to simulate various combinations of products and allows the consumer to simulate various application amounts of make-up products. Further, what is desired is a method of using an image of a consumer as a vehicle for marketing make-up products and fashion accessories.
The present invention provides a system and method in which make-up and accessory products precisely overlie and smoothly blend with a digital image of a consumer (e.g., an image of the consumer's face, or head and torso) to create a true-to-life simulation of how such products will appear on the consumer. Further, the system and method allows the consumer to choose from a large plurality of products, to create a multiplicity of combinations of image simulations, as desired by the consumer. Further, the system and method allow the user to modify the image to simulate applications of various amounts of make-up products, as preferred by the consumer. In addition, the invention provides a method for marketing make-up products and fashion accessories to a targeted consumer using a digital image of the consumer, where products precisely overlie and smoothly blend with the digital image, to create a compelling and effective marketing vehicle.
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